Hello All,I have just joined as I am having a problem with Stop Spammer not connecting with with the SFS database. However, I cannot access the english version of the forum even though I have selected English in the form at the top of the page and also marked english as my preference in my profile settings. Can anyone help?

I am using ver. 2.0.2 of SMF with httpBL and "cURL fetch_web_data" but I am still getting the error message:Error with Anti SPAM DB. Connection Failed. Please try again later, or Contact with the WebMaster.I have un-installed httpBL and Stop Spammer twice but still get the error message: Mod Stop Spammer is ON but there is no connection just now with Stop Forum Spam. Please try later. If the problem persists ask for help in the official support forum. in the Registration settings.I am using the latest versions of these mods.

Where are you having problems with the English version, in your forum or here in this forum?

Now, about the problem with Stop Spammer not connecting with the SFS database, one thing is sure: mod httpBL has nothing to do with that. Both mods use completely different systems and connect to different servers, so you can leave mod httpBL installed and active while you try to sort the other mod.

I will try to talk with Paul (the admin of SFS servers) to see if his servers had been off lately for some reason.

How long have you been having that problem?

If Paul tells me there has been no problem with his servers, I suppose most likely the problem should be in the server where you have your forum. I will try to think about some tests you can do to see if that's the case and try to find out a solution.

Anyway, don't worry too much, because mod Stop Spammer is not very important to keep the spammers away. I have just now 10 different forums and I have been doing during the last 5 years a lot of tests using different anti-spam solutions, to try to find out the best combination against spammers.

My conclusion after all those tests is that it is enough with just these 2 measures:

-Mod httpBL (for me the stronger anti-spam program)

-One good anti-spam question (If you don't have one already set up, go to Admin => Configuration => Security and Moderation => Anti-Spam => Verification Questions and write one there)

In the forums where I have only those 2 things on, I have no problems with spammers and it make no difference if I add to them mod Stop Spammer or not.

So we can say that mod Stop Spammer is just an extra layer of security, but not really important.

If you want to have more security I would suggest to add a kind of firewall program against hackers. I consider that to be a lot more important than losing time trying to add a 3rd layer of security against spammers.

The best anti-hackers program I know (and I use it in all my webs) is Crawltrack. A free source program you can download from http://www.crawltrack.net/

Anyway, as I said, I will try to think about some tests you can do with your server to try to find out a solution for mod Stop Spammer.

Snoopy, thank you for your prompt reply.It was this forum I was having trouble with language, although I think I might have gotten around the problem now.

I don't think the SMF server is a problem because the error has been around for a couple of weeks, at first I didn't bother about it because all the ip addresses in the error_logs I checked, were blacklisted with robtex.com.I have changed the registration settings to allow registration to continue so that genuine people are able to complete their registration.

I suspect from what you said that it may be the server hosting the forum that has been changed and I will contact them to investigate. I would be grateful if you can suggest some tests.

Off subject, I have found your site to be very slow in responding, is it because of the multiple languages?